EXPLORING URBANIZATION: EVENTS, RESOURCES, RISKS AND MOVEMENTS Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 June, 2018

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1 EXPLORING URBANIZATION: EVENTS, RESOURCES, RISKS AND MOVEMENTS Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 June, 2018 Urban studies masterclass for MSc and PhD researchers: Wednesday 20 June 2018 Organized by: Centre for Space, Place and Society, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands Venue: Orion building, Wageningen Campus, room C2005 (Monday), room C1040 (Tuesday) Registration:

2 Introduction The world is rapidly urbanizing. While some see urbanization as an opportunity for more efficiently planned development or even sustainable growth, more critical voices see it as a site of extreme differences between rich and poor, new forms of capitalist expansion, lack of basic public services, and exclusion of growing slum populations. Simultaneously, the contemporary urban condition is typically marked by the degradation of ecologically more diverse spaces, including forests, soils and watersheds, resulting in socially uneven landscapes of hazard. Characterized, then, by flows of people, goods, resources, ideas, ideals and ambitions as well as by the ruptures and (dis)continuities of hazard and disaster alongside place based practices of socio political organization and mobilization, urbanization and urban spaces mean different things to different people. Some authors have argued that since the mid 1990s a subtler "extended neoliberalism" has dominated urban political organization, illustrated by the creation of hybrid regulations and institutions that support the functioning of free markets, i.e. public private partnerships and governance innovations such as participatory budgeting. While models of neoliberalism based on capital accumulation via unregulated markets, privatization, and state withdrawal from welfare and social institutions remain highly relevant, contemporary urban regimes may also be seen to represent hybrid forms of urban governance, containing diverse political spaces and practices. The inherent instability of neoliberal hybrid regimes become apparent when disruptive events like earthquakes and hurricanes occur, often giving rise to strong urban movements that center on the right to survive in the city. The same holds for protracted, but no less disruptive processes, such as the uncontrolled expansion of exploitation of peri urban resources, adding to peri urban water insecurities. We aim to explore these issues in a two day workshop, organized on the basis of the following key overlapping themes: 1) the urban as hazardous environment; 2) urbanization and peri urban water insecurity; 3) the urban as a seat of social and political movements. Urban spaces, with their growing and increasingly dense populations making a living in marginal places, have increasingly become hazardous environments. Disaster situations resulting from hazards like floods and hurricanes lay bare the huge vulnerabilities, inequalities and power differences in urban settings. While being a nuisance for some and a disaster for others, the juxtaposition of these events with ongoing vulnerability leads us to critical temporal and spatial questions regarding the governance of contemporary urban life. Through critical analysis we gain a better understanding of neglected surplus populations that must fend for themselves in a world where becoming resilient is increasingly regarded as an individual responsibility. Urbanization can also be studied from the perspective of areas and populations that are becoming urban. Changing peri urban land uses and increasing land prices, an insatiable demand for water and disposal of wastewater, as well as new flows of people, activities, foodstuffs and other resources, are all part of these new urbanizing environmental relationships. What these mean for the use and control of water in peri urban areas becomes a key question linking conceptual interests with policy and practice in urban service delivery.

3 Seminar DAY 1: Registration and coffee / tea Opening Keynote lecture 1: Prof. Dr. Erik Swyngedouw (University of Manchester): Urbanization and Environmental Futures: Politicizing Urban Political Ecologies Discussant t.b.a.; Plenary discussion Coffee and tea break Keynote lecture 2: Prof. Dr. Anja Nygren (University of Helsinki) Urban disasters and displacements: Unpredictable environments and volatile politics Discussant t.b.a.; Plenary discussion Lunch break THEME 1: THE URBAN AS HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENT ) Short introduction (Dr. Jeroen Warner and/or Dr. Robert Coates, Wageningen University) 2) Social resilience and the food system of Dhaka (Dr. Markus Keck, Goettingen University) 3) River restoration and displacements in Chennai, India (Maartje van Eerd, Erasmus University) Questions and Discussion Coffee and tea break ) Practical presentation: Piloting disaster and disability in Istanbul (Dr. Çaglar Akgüngör, AKUT Search and Rescue Association, Istanbul, Turkey) 2) Bottled water consumption in Jakarta, Indonesia: a response to uneven distribution of environmental hazards (Dr. Michelle Kooij, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands) 3) Relevance and challenges of integrating more DRR in land use planning policies. Experience return from a French case study (Prof. Patrick Pigeon, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France)

4 Seminar DAY 2: Walk in, coffee, tea THEME 2: URBANIZATION AND PERI URBAN WATER SECURITY Peri urban water insecurity in three South Asian countries: cases from Bangladesh, India, Nepal 1) Peri urban water insecurity explored: short introduction (Dr. Dik Roth, Wageningen University) 2) Water, control and politics: contested sluice gate operation in peri urban Khulna, Bangladesh (Prof. M. Shah Alam Khan, BUET/IWFM, Dhaka). 3) Changing access to peri urban surface and groundwater sources in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (Anushiya Shrestha, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University) 4) Gurgaon first : changing water flows and neoliberal development in peri urban Gurgaon, India (Prof. Dr. Vishal Narain, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon) Questions and discussion Coffee and tea break ) Documentary on water in Kathmandu, Nepal: Troubled Water 2) In defense of peri urban water security: SaciWATERs in peri urban Hyderabad, India. Speakers: Poulomi Banerjee and Monica Priya, SaciWATERs 3) Plenary discussion on urban and peri urban water (in )securities Lunch break THEME 3: THE URBAN AS A SEAT OF SOCIO POLITICAL MOVEMENTS ) There is no such thing as a neoliberal city: social movements in a polycentric and self referential world (Dr. Martijn Duineveld, Wageningen University) 2) Slum politics in Recife (Dr. Pieter de Vries, Wageningen University) 3) The (World Football) Cup City in Recife: an urban megaproject (Dr. Flavio de Souza, Federal University Pernambuco) Questions and discussion Coffee and tea break Keynote lecture 3: Dr. Farhana Sultana (Syracuse University): Urban water politics: towards emancipatory governance and social justice. Final plenary discussion panel: Prof. Dr. Erik Swyngedouw, Prof. Dr. Anja Nygren, and other (to be determined) Closure and drinks

5 DAY 3: URBAN STUDIES MASTERCLASS For PhD and MSc students We are very pleased to announce a third morning of Exploring Urbanization, which will consist of an urban studies masterclass focused on the overall interdisciplinary themes of urban spatiality, water, risks, governance, and social movements. The session will be led by three leading scholars and researchers in their fields: Prof. Dr. Vishal Narain (Management Development Institute, Gurgaon) Prof. Dr. Anja Nygren (University of Helsinki) Dr. Flavio de Souza (Federal University of Pernambuco) Aimed primarily at internal students and researchers with a strong interest in urbanization and urbanism, the masterclass will focus on critical understandings of the contemporary urban predicament, with reference to different world regions and from different perspectives. Interaction with participants is an important objective, although there will be short talks based around the convenors key interests and research approaches. External students can also apply for participation. The first hour of the masterclass will consist of 20 minute talks from each convenor outlining their key interests in the urban ; the regions and locations that motivate their interest; and the methodological approaches they employ in urban research. The convenors will draw on specific cases to chart some of the opportunities and challenges of an academic urban( ization) focus. With coffee/tea available, the session will then move into a Knowledge Café format, with participants moving between three stations facilitated by the session convenors, to share ideas, questions and interests. Emerging from these discussions, participants will have an opportunity in the final hour to present a project proposal, draft paper, or initial thinking on a specific topic (in abbreviated form), in order to gain feedback from facilitators and peers. Acknowledgement of funding: This seminar was made possible by financial contributions from the Centre for Space, Place and Society (CSPS) of Wageningen University, and the Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS) of Wageningen University. Theme 2 (Urbanization and peri urban water security) is linked to, and made possible by the research program Conflict and Cooperation in the Management of Climate Change, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) / Department for International Development (DFID).